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"IGT's NASPL portfolio is designed to enhance player engagement, grow sales, drive player convenience, and expand opportunities for lotteries," said Jay Gendron, IGT Chief Operating Officer Lottery. "In developing our portfolio, IGT applied decades of player insights and global experience to ensure that we are supporting versatile products that responsibly shape the future of lotteries and entertain players across a range of channels."

“We are ready for them to become a partner with us in this historic venture of starting Mississippi’s lottery,” said MLC President Tom Shaheen. “With their skillset, I am confident they will be able to help us grow the company and reach our audiences through exciting avenues.”

“The Illinois Lottery is proud to support such a worthy cause and expand its commitment to good causes around the state,” Illinois Lottery Acting Director Harold Mays said. “This new game will help us achieve our goal to create fun games that benefit people and communities throughout Illinois.”

We are pleased to be working with one of the most iconic leagues in professional sports worldwide,” said EquiLottery Games CEO Brad Cummings. “We have already hit the ground running and the early response from lotteries to Baseball Bucks has been exceedingly positive. I want to thank MLB for being exceptional to work with through this process as we develop a game that will increase the engagement with baseball across the U.S. while also returning more money to the good causes lotteries support. As with all of our games, Baseball Bucks is designed to be a win for all parties involved.”

"We are thrilled to have IGT on board with the Mississippi Lottery Corporation," said Tom Shaheen, Mississippi Lottery Corporation President. "We look forward to partnering with them in our effort as we pursue our mission of raising funds for roads and bridges throughout Mississippi."

“Installing Lottery ticket vending machines at State Farm Stadium will be a win-win for our players, many of whom are Cardinals fans,” Executive Director of the Arizona Lottery Gregg Edgar said. “We are excited to partner with the Arizona Cardinals again, and we can’t wait to watch our players scratching in their seats while winning with their team.”

Jean-Luc Moner-Banet, Chair of the WLA Sports Betting Integrity Committee said, “This is indeed an historical day for many of us. The Convention will no doubt play a vital role in eradicating match-fixing, a phenomenon that jeopardises the very credibility and inspirational value of sports. On behalf of WLA and its members, I urge states across the globe to proceed with its ratification and the implementation of its provisions. We also call upon states to set up national platforms and take concrete measures against illegal sports betting, as required by the Convention”.

"Adding Resorts World Catskills to the growing list of operators leveraging the IGT PlaySports platform reinforces the quality, versatility and market readiness of our omni-channel solution," said Enrico Drago, IGT PlayDigital Senior Vice President. "The continued expansion of IGT PlaySports' footprint validates that we are serious about sports betting, and our '50-state solution' can service a diverse range of IGT customers spanning commercial and tribal casinos, lotteries and racetracks."

Pat McHugh, Executive Vice President and Group Chief Executive, Lottery for Scientific Games, said, "On behalf of all of our teams at Scientific Games, from game creation to innovative and secure products, we are honored by the trust placed in us to meet their growth objectives as the exclusive supplier of retail terminals, a portfolio of instant games and supporting systems for the Turkey National Lottery."

INTRALOT Group Chairman & CEO Sokratis P. Kokkalis noted: “The second quarter results, although still absorbing the business impact of last year’s negative developments, reflect improvement in operating cash flows and liquidity by successfully implementing our three-pillar strategy for operational improvements, new business, and non-core asset disposals. We successfully completed the delivery and transition to the Lotos X new central system for our historic client OPAP in July, and came to an agreement with OPAP for the disposal of our 16.5% participation in Hellenic Lotteries for a consideration of €20.0m. The renewal of our contract with the DC Lottery to include Sportsbetting and the award of a new Sportsbetting contract in Morocco demonstrate INTRALOT’s readiness to tap fresh opportunities with cutting-edge new technological solutions.” READ THE ENTIRE REPORT HERE

Harold Mays, Illinois Lottery Acting Director, said, “The Illinois Lottery’s mission is to maximize revenue in an ethical and socially responsible manner to benefit schools, capital projects and specialty causes. “To that end, the Illinois Lottery has contributed more than $21 billion in revenue to help fund education in Illinois and hundreds of millions of dollars more for specialty causes and capital projects.”

“During the third and fourth quarters of FY19, we began to view with growing concern an aggressive expansion in the number of these machines installed at Lottery-selling retail locations,” Lottery Director Kevin Hall wrote. “By our unofficial count, nearly 4,300 of these unregulated games-of-skill machines now operate in more than 1,350 Lottery licensed retailers – one-quarter of our licensed retail locations.”

Kristian Nylén, Kambi Chief Executive Officer, said: “Over the course of the past 12 months, Kambi and DraftKings have developed a symbiotic relationship, working closely together to deliver a high-quality sportsbook, which has only improved over time.

“With billions of dollars in critical revenue for education in the balance, Judge Barbadoro’s ruling is clearly consistent with the intent of the law, allowing states to offer legal gaming products to support important causes, said Lottery Executive Director Charles McIntyre.”

“The CT Lottery is excited to partner with Powerball to give our players a chance to win a fun-filled VIP trip to New York City, plus a chance to be the first Powerball millionaire of the year,” said CT Lottery President and CEO Greg Smith. “I really hope a Connecticut winner brings home the $1 million prize.”

"We are happy and proud that last year we not only celebrated the 70th anniversary of our company, but also significantly increased our sales," said Rhineland-Palatinian LOTTO Managing Director Jürgen Häfner, "We have once again demonstrated that we have innovative and sustainable game offerings in our portfolio that continue to appeal to our customers."

“Our longstanding partnership with IGT has enabled us to operate our statewide video lottery system with the highest standards of integrity and security, and has helped us grow revenue to fund programs Oregonians care about including schools, parks, and economic development,” said Barry Pack, Oregon State Lottery Director.” “Through the upgrade of IGT INTELLIGEN, the Oregon Lottery will gain access to industry-leading technology that can help drive revenue and position the Lottery to deploy future functionality,” said Jay Gendron, IGT Chief Operating Officer, Lottery.“The Oregon Lottery has one of North America’s most successful VLT programs, and IGT has been providing it with innovative technology for more than three decades.

"IGT is helping the Minnesota State Lottery increase our sales footprint and attract new players through the addition of the innovative GameTouch 20s," said Adam Prock, Minnesota State Lottery Executive Director. "Generating more funds for the State and our important beneficiaries is our goal, and introducing modern lottery conveniences like IGT's new self-service vending machines will help us to deliver on our mission and better serve our retail partners and players alike." "IGT has delivered cutting-edge lottery products and solutions to the Minnesota State Lottery since it became a valued customer of ours in 2003," said Jay Gendron, IGT Chief Operating Officer, Lottery."We are committed to the Minnesota State Lottery's long-term growth strategy and believe the addition of the GameTouch 20s will complement the Lottery's well-established operation and provide further convenience to players and retailers."

Philip Bowcock, Chief Executive Officer of William Hill, said: “We are making good progress against the five-year strategy we outlined last year, delivering strong revenue growth in the US and other international markets and positioning William Hill well for future growth. We continue to expand rapidly in the US, both in Nevada and in the new states, with over $1bn wagered with us in the first half. We are now live in eight states and will expand into at least two more states in H2.”

Lorne Weil, Executive Chairman of Inspired commenting on the quarter said "we believe that by the end of 2019/beginning of 2020 we should have mitigated the impact of the Triennial Implementation to a level at or below our earlier forecasts, added new organic Adjusted EBITDA at least equal to the Triennial Implementation impact, completed the NTG Novomatic UK's Gaming Technology Group,acquisition and begun to realize the benefits of synergy. This would take our profitability to an entirely new level and provide a platform for continued growth thereafter."

In order to maintain the current monopoly-based gambling system, Olli Sarekoski, chief executive, Veikkaus, estimated it will be necessary to prohibit gambling and money transfers from foreign gambling sites in Finland.

“We’re pleased to be able to report on new records, but equally, we’re proud to serve as a vital source of revenue for the state,” said Maryland Lottery and Gaming Director Gordon Medenica. “We are extremely grateful for the efforts of our employees, our retailers, our vendors and our casino partners. The hard work continues as we move forward into a new year.”

From advertising law issues in eSports those in advergaming

eSports competitions have recently become a trend topic among sports and gaming lovers.

An ever-growing number of major sports leagues and pro young players are getting involved in this global competitive industry, together with an increasing turnover. By 2020, eSports is predicted to become a billion-dollar industry.

This explosive growth of digital sports championships captured the attention of a number of leading companies – operating in various lines of business – which are gradually approaching this new phenomenon by investing into eSports in the hope of targeting its relevant audience.

Large companies are already familiar with advertising in videogames, where the most common marketing strategies are the so called in-game advertising and the advergaming. Both communications forms have now become part of the common language of the eSports and their audience as well which triggers new advertising law issues.

The in-game advertising is a particularly effective form of adv consisting in the product placement directly in the game. According to those companies which approached this kind of adv, it seems that the gaming audience is generally well disposed towards the brands appearing during the digital competitions, considering the brand as an element that increases realism to the gaming experience.

The advergaming is a different form of advertising, which – benefiting from the enthusiasm of the player – proposes a “game into the game” related to the advertised product. This usually happens in appropriate moments of the competitions strategically identified (e.g. to obtain additional lives or boosts). In this way the gamers directly interact with the advertised brand during specific breaks of the digital competition.

This means that the advertising message shall comply, inter alia, with art. 11 of Italian Code of Marketing Advertising Self-Regulation regarding the protection of children and young people, being careful to avoid commercial communications which may cause psychological, moral or physical harm, and which may exploit their credulity or inexperience. Similarly, marketing communications must not include a direct exhortation to children to buy the promoted product or to persuade other people to purchase it.

In addition, companies approaching these new adv techniques in the digital competition industry shall be sure that the advertising claim is clearly perceived as such by the audience, in compliance with art 7 of the Code. In this regard, regulations do not provide for specific and compulsory methods to communicate this message to the audience; nevertheless, the use of expressions like “Advertised by” or “Sponsored by” are highly suggested and in use by the most part of the brands. The main aim is to avoid to mislead the audience and to permit to distinguish easily and immediately the advertising purpose of the commercial message (You can read on the topic “How to do influencer marketing right!“)

How shall image rights be protected in eSports?

While approaching the eAdvertisement virtual world of eSports, however, companies shall deal not only with the customers’ perspective/experience, but they shall also take into account all the IP rights related to the competition itself. In particular, in the digital competitions of eSports, just as in the more common (offline) sports, we deal with the players’ image rights, the teams and sport events’ distinctive signs and rights.

As to the image rights of a single athlete, it shall be considered that, in case the player wears a team official t-shirt or anything else which creates a connection between his image and the one of the team, the authorization to use the image of the player for commercial purposes should, generally, be granted not only by the single athlete, but by the team as well. Furthermore, it can happen that players might grant in advance to their team the right to exploit their image for commercial purposes, but this event shall be checked on a case by case basis.

The same principle applies anytime the image of a group of players belonging to the same team is used. In this case, even if there is no direct use of any distinctive sign of the team, the authorization of such team shall usually be sought as well in all those cases in which there is a clear recall of the team they belong to.

Similarly, should the player be depicted during a specific eSports event with distinctive signs clearly recalling the event itself (for example holding a UEFA trophy), the authorization of the related entity, to which the distinctive sign belongs, shall be sought.

From a general point of view, we have to consider that – according to the Italian case and copyright law – the prior authorization to use players’ images shall be sought anytime the image is used for commercial and lucrative purposes. All the companies approaching this phenomenon shall therefore bear in mind the above.

However, although eSports represent a fast-growing industry, its ‘principles’ are not likewise well-established yet, from both the advertising strategy and the IP rights perspectives. These topics – and all the related legal issues arising therefrom – are yet to be fully explored: as per any new frontier, the possible paths may be potentially unlimited.

Therefore, while taking into account that the above-mentioned principles remain still applicable, it will be important to constantly monitor the evolution of the eSports industry in order to understand – and hopefully to anticipate – the main trends and the alternative strategies for the big companies willing to invest in it.

“Global Gaming Women has a strong mission statement, and our guiding principles of courage, integrity, and leadership continue to inspire our Board and the women we serve. We are grateful to the many companies and individuals who back GGW, and as we broaden our donor structure, we will ensure we will have the resources necessary to support the development of women at all levels throughout the industry,” Eickelman said.